A Matter of Perspective
by Okori Yo
Summary: Turned into children on an alien planet, the team must rely on the Doctor to help them.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1**

"Uhhh…" Jack let out a soft moan and slowly opened his eyes, blinking to focus his vision. Propping himself up on one arm, he promptly landed back on the floor as his hand slid out from underneath him. Shaking back the sleeve of his suddenly very large uniform, the man tried again, this time succeeding.

"Everyone alright?" Jack asked, his voice squeaking as he spoke. Coughing and rubbing his throat, he heard more groans from behind him. Obviously, his team was just waking up as well.

"Colonel?" a young girl's voice asked, sounding strangely familiar. Twisting around he stared in shock. A child Sam was staring back at him, looking mildly horrified. She appeared to be around eight or nine, and her long blonde hair was a mess.

"You're a kid!" he exclaimed.

"So are you." she replied, nodding at him. Puzzled, Jack looked down and found the reason why his uniform was suddenly so large - he had shrunk. Running a hand over his face and through his hair, the Colonel guessed he was around fifteen, perhaps younger.

"We all are."

Glancing sideways, he watched as Daniel sat up and adjusted his glasses, smirking at his early eighties hairstyle. Noting his look, the younger man asked, "What?"

"Oh, nothing. That hair looks good on you."

Examining it for a moment with his fingers, Daniel sighed and muttered, "Why did it have to be this haircut?"

"Daniel Jackson is correct. We have all be turned into our younger selves." Teal'c said, crossing his legs and focusing on each of them in turn. He looked to be about ten, and his golden tattoo was gone from his forehead.

"How is your Goa'uld larvae?" Sam asked, nodding towards his stomach.

"It appears to be fine. Whatever happened to us did not affect it."

"About that…anyone know what happened? The last thing I remember is stepping through the Stargate and seeing a flash of green light." Jack said, rolling up his dangling sleeves and pant cuffs before getting to his feet.

"That's all I remember too." Daniel replied. The others murmured in agreement as they rose, looking around curiously at the room they were in. It was circular and bathed in pale green light. A console stood in the middle of the room, a clear column rising out of it and into the ceiling.

"It looks like a ship." Jack muttered, wandering over to peer at the array of buttons and knobs on the console.

"It might belong to whoever did this to us. Teal'c, have you encountered this technology before?" Daniel asked, examining a pillar that seemed to be made of coral.

"I have not seen anything that can reverse someone's age before. Nor have I encountered this ship design before." he answered, moving over to join Jack.

"Well, that doesn't help us much." Jack grumbled, the turned swiftly as a previously unseen door in the back opened and a person entered.

"Ah. You're awake." a man cropped hair and big ears said as he straightened the leather jacket he wore. "Feel alright?"

"We feel fine. And you are…?" The British man didn't seem surprised as Jack stepped towards him, arms crossed and frowning.

"I'm the Doctor," he replied, looking past the Colonel and growling, "and I won't allow grubby little hands to touch my ship." Looking surprised, Sam quickly backed away from screen she had been examining.

Frown deepening, Jack snapped, "Nice to meet you, Doctor. Now turn us back into adults."

"Sorry, I can't do that."

"Oh? And why not?"

"Because I'm not the one who turned you into kids. And frankly, even if I did have the means to do that, I won't use it on _you_."

Not caring that this doctor was bigger then he was, Jack balled his hands into fists and was preparing to leap onto the man when a tug came at his jacket.

"Jack…fighting him won't help." Daniel hissed in his ear.

"Says who?! He's obviously hiding something." he snapped, turning to face the younger boy.

"That may be true Colonel, but getting him mad probably won't solve anything." Sam whispered, joining them. "And besides, you're just a teenager. We're all just kids. I hate to admit it, but the Doctor might be the only help we're going to get on this planet."

"Teal'c?"

"I will be content with whatever you decide, Colonel O'Neill. Although I do agree that we must be cautious if we are to trust this man." Jack thought this over for a few minutes, gaze flipping from person to person as he made his decision.

"Done with your meeting?" the Doctor said as they turned back to face him. Ignoring the man's sarcastic tone, Jack stepped forward.

"What do you say to starting over? I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill of the U.S. Air Force. This is Captain Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c." the Doctor nodded to each team member as they were introduced, leaning against the wall and looking mildly amused at their situation.

"So I finally run into someone from the SGC and I get a bunch of kids? Wonderful."

"You know about us?" Daniel asked in surprise, eyes bright behind his glasses.

"Yep. Don't bother asking how, I'm not in the mood to explain."

"Fair enough…" Jack said, accepting this with a slight nod. He didn't care about details right now, he just wanted to make sure his team was safe and return them all to normal. Hesitating for a moment, he swallowed the distaste in his mouth and asked, "Can you help us?"

"Maybe. Although I'm warning you, I'm not going to baby-sit you lot. That's not my thing." The Doctor glowered briefly at them, then relaxed and continued. "I can try and get in touch with the civilization here. Obviously, the like me a whole lot better than they like you."

"Apparently." the Colonel replied dryly, then motioned to his adult uniform. "I don't suppose you have a change of clothes? Fighting in these are rather difficult, you see."

The Doctor smiled and nodded. "I think I have a trunk of kid's stuff around here somewhere. Follow me." Jack walked after the man as he went back through the hard-to-see door, the rest of his team trailing along behind. They were discussing something, but he wasn't listening. This Doctor had him on edge, and for good reason. They could all be heading into a trap.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

Samantha tucked a stray lock of hair behind an ear as they followed the Doctor through a maze of hallways, down stairs and through far too many doors to count. She was curious about this man and his ship, and the mish-mash of technology on the main control console only fuelled her desire to learn more about him.

Daniel jogged up beside her, flashing a smile as he spoke. "How come the probe we sent earlier didn't pick up on this civilization? With this level of technology, it should have been obvious there were inhabitants here."

"I'm not sure. Perhaps they have a developed far enough to be able to fool our probe. If so…then we may not be dealing with transplanted humans." Sam bit her lip as she thought about the point Daniel had raised. The Nox had been able to completely hide their floating city, and the team had already encountered several planets with advanced humans on them.

"Then if we are dealing with aliens, why turn us into kids? Surely they would have had weapons powerful enough to kill us on sight." The young boy sighed, obviously frustrated, "I mean, doing this to us makes no sense!"

"Maybe they wanted to experiment on us first?" she suggested hesitantly, wincing slightly at the thought. "Turn us into children and then watch how we develop?"

"Maybe…but it still seems like a crazy idea to me." Daniel muttered, pushing up his glasses only to have them slide back down his nose. "I wonder if the Doctor has a spare pair of glasses I could borrow? These are the wrong prescription now."

"I probably do. Right, here we are." the man called back over his shoulder, making Sam wonder how long he had been listening in. Arching an eyebrow as he opened a seemingly random door and entered, she dutifully stepped inside the room after Jack. She stopped in surprise a moment later, gazing around at the multitude of clothes racks, closets, and trunks that crammed the space. A spiral staircase led both upwards and downwards, presumably to more rooms packed with clothing.

"Ok, I'm impressed." Jack said from in front of her, sounding as awestruck as she was. Wondering exactly what kind of spaceship they were in, Sam watched as the Doctor bustled around the room, muttering to himself.

"Children's clothing…children's clothing…here? No, not anymore…" Vanishing down the staircase, he returned shaking his head, and went up the steps. A faint shout followed a moment later, accompanied by the call, "Found them! Up here!"

"Let me." Jack said briskly as Daniel made a move towards the stairs, brushing past him and advancing slowly upwards with a determined look. Sam knew that the Colonel was just being cautious by insisting on going first, but she wondered if there was any need for it. She had trusted the Doctor almost immediately upon meeting him, and somehow felt confident that he wasn't trying to trick or trap them.

Jack came down the stairs a moment later, giving them a nod of approval. "All clear." he said quietly. Smiling with relief that her intuition had been right, Sam quickly mounted the steps, Daniel and Teal'c following. They came into a room similar to the one below, but this one seemed slightly bigger and was less jammed with clothing.

"Here ya go. Knew I had some kids' stuff lying around." the Doctor announced, waving towards a large chest and looking pleased with himself. As Jack and Daniel made a beeline for the chest, she wandered over to the man and took a hard look at him. He returned her stare with one of his own, apparently not minding as the young girl examined him closely.

Recalling the mixture of technology on what had appeared to be the control panel, she asked, "This ship…is it yours? Or did you take it from some other race?"

"She's mine." the Doctor answered, glancing away briefly to check on the others. "She's a TARDIS, and you won't find another like her anywhere in the universe."

Surprised at the bragging tone in his voice, Sam pressed a little harder, hoping to learn more. "A TARDIS? Is that her name, or is it what type of ship she is?"

"Both." Giving her a small smile, the man turned his attention towards the chest. Following his gaze, Sam saw that Jack had picked out an outfit, with Daniel not too far behind. "There are some changing room off to your left if you want to use 'em." the Doctor said, stepping away from her and moving towards the stairs.

"Right. Come on, kiddo." Jack said with a smirk, clapping Daniel on the shoulder and steering him in the pointed direction. Rolling his eyes at Sam, the young boy allowed himself to be led away.

Frowning at the enigmatic answer and the abrupt end to the conversation, she went over to the trunk and joined Teal'c in sorting through the clothes. There seemed to be clothing from every era of Earth's history that she was aware of, and some that she couldn't identify, but most of it seemed contemporary.

"Captain Carter." Looking away from the T-shirt she was holding, Sam focused on Teal'c.

"What is it?"

"I was not entirely truthful earlier. While I have not come across this exact ship design before, I had an idea as to which race this ship belongs to. Your conversation with the Doctor confirmed my suspicions."

Feeling her stomach twist into a knot at the tone of his words, she replied shakily, "Shouldn't we wait for the others? They'd probably like to hear this."

Teal'c shook his head, answering, "I am sure Daniel Jackson would. But I fear Colonel O'Neill would not believe me."

"Why not?"

"Among the Goa'uld, there is a legend. It speaks of a race who have the ability to travel through time and space, able to go to any point they wish due to their mastery over time. The type of ship they were said to travel in was called a TARDIS."

"How do you know that this ship is one of the ones in the legend, then?" Sam asked, nervously glancing towards the stairs. But there was no sign of the Doctor, and only the faint sounds of the others changing broke the sudden silence.

"I…do not. But the legend also said that this race sometimes interfered in the affairs of others. If this Doctor has caused trouble on this planet in the recent past, it would explain why the inhabitants attacked us. He looks like a human, and they would have no way of telling us apart from him when we came through the Stargate."

"That makes sense." Hearing voices approaching, Sam quickly picked out the rest of her outfit and rose. "Thanks for telling me, Teal'c. I'll keep that in mind." The boy tipped his head in response, glancing over at Jack as he came into sight. Dressed in a black T-shirt with blue jeans and sneakers, he looked like a typical teenager. The backwards ball cap on his head only added to that effect.

"Could you two you take any longer? I want to get this show on the road." he complained mildly upon seeing them.

"We're not going to get anywhere by rushing, Jack." Daniel said, appearing behind the older boy and fruitlessly adjusting his glasses. Outfitted in a checked sweater a dark pants, he hardly resembled the man Sam knew and respected.

"The more time I spend like this, the more like I feel I'm actually fifteen." Jack responded sourly.

"Really? I feel normal." Sam said in surprise, glancing at the boys to see their reaction. Daniel nodded rapidly to show he agreed with her, but Teal'c was silent.

"I also feel…odd, Colonel O'Neill. At first I thought it was simply because I was not used to being like this, but now I am not sure."

"Wait, how old are we?" Daniel asked, eyes alight with interest. "I figure I'm about age eight."

"As I said, fifteen."

"I am not sure." Teal'c replied. "I need to see myself fully before I can answer."

"Um…" Glancing down at herself, Sam tried to guess her age and failed. "I do too. How about we go change and let you guys know?"

"Sounds good to me. Just don't take all day." Nodding, she went to the changing rooms, selecting one and beginning to remove her now too-large outfit. As she undressed, the girl thought about what Teal'c had said. She could see why the Colonel might be sceptical of anything dealing with time travel. Although the concept of the Stargate seemed just as farfetched, it did abide by most of the rules of science she knew. Time travel was as yet unproven, and even Sam had a hard time getting her head around the idea that this Doctor might be able bend it to his will. If what Teal'c suggested did turn out to be true, convincing Jack to trust the Doctor might prove impossible.

Pulling her hair back into a ponytail with a sigh, she looked critically in the mirror at herself, picked up her folded uniform, and went back to join the others. Teal'c was already there, looking uncomfortable in a blue long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants.

"Using Earth's dating system, I appear to be eleven." he stated simply.

"I think I'm nine." Sam replied, glancing at each of her team mates in turn. Jack had his arms crossed, looking annoyed; Daniel's attention seemed torn between the group and examining the room around them, and Teal'c kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. With surprise, she realized she was having trouble focusing as well, her mind wandering onto decidedly child-like topics…like eying the pink fluffy boa on the rack next to her. "Why are our ages important, Daniel?'

"I think there is a reason why we were brought down to the ages we're at. I mean, why not just put us all at age ten or something? Why make us all different ages? On Earth, many different cultures put importance on someone reaching a particular age. For example-"

"What are you getting at?" Jack interrupted. Sam thought he looked mildly upset, but was trying to hide it. She knew the Colonel could be impatient at times, but this behaviour was something different.

"Well…" Daniel hesitated, glancing away from the older boy as if intimidated by him and focusing on her. "I'm not sure, but what if you are right, Sam? Maybe they do want to capture and study us because the are curious about human children."

"It would be an interesting theory, although one requiring precise timing in order to catch us unawares and unable to fight back." Teal'c said quietly.

"Which is exactly what they did. C'mon, let's go see the Doctor. He did say he could help us talk to these people." Jack responded, tilting his chin up as if daring someone to argue with him. But as everyone nodded and followed him towards the staircase, Sam worried about what was happening to them. They were adults, stuck in the bodies of children….and their child side seemed to be starting to take over.


End file.
